Lakeland Girl Commits Suicide After 1½ Years of Being Bullied

A 12-year-old Lakeland girl was found dead early Tuesday morning at an abandoned cement business in what her family is calling an apparent suicide.

By STEPHANIE ALLEN & MATTHEW PLEASANTTHE LEDGER

LAKELAND | A 12-year-old Lakeland girl was found dead early Tuesday morning at an abandoned cement business in what her family is calling an apparent suicide.Only a few hours before Polk County Sheriff deputies found her body, Rebecca Ann Sedwick changed her name on a social media messaging application to "That Dead Girl," but no one noticed until it was too late.Polk County Sheriff deputies are still investigating the girl's death, but her family said they fear Sedwick took her own life after more than a year and a half of constant cyber-bullying."She has been bullied before and people had told her she needed to kill herself," Sedwick's sister, Summer Howard, said. "But we all thought she was fine now. No one had known."Sedwick, of 135 Arizona Ave., was last seen leaving her home Monday about 6:45 a.m., according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. Her mom, Tricia Norman, said she thought her daughter had walked to the school bus. When Sedwick didn't come home Monday by 6 p.m., Howard, 19, called their mom, who contacted Sedwick's school, Lawton Chiles Middle Academy. Norman said she was never notified that Sedwick had not showed up for class. Polk County School District officials declined to comment on the district's policy regarding how parents are notified when students are absent. Lawton Chiles Middle Academy Principal Sharon Neuman said the school system has an automated system that contacts parents if their child is absent, but based on information she received from the district office, the system had problems after going through an upgrade and is not in use."I don't believe they would have gotten the message yesterday," she said.Deputies searched for several hours before finding Sedwick about 2:25 a.m. lying on the ground at a former Cemex cement site at 315 N. Eastside Drive, Lakeland, the Sheriff's Office said. Cemex representatives were at the location Tuesday morning, but declined to comment. Howard said she told deputies Sedwick has snuck into the abandoned site, which is about half a mile from their home, to climb on the cement silos. When deputies found the girl's body there, Howard and her family were devastated. "I don't know what I'm doing," Norman said. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do next. I just lost my world."My life is just never going to be the same, I'm missing a big part of it, a huge part of it."The Polk County Sheriff's Office said Sedwick had made comments about wanting to hurt herself before leaving for school Monday, but Norman said she thought her daughter's rough past with bullying was over. "She put on a perfect, happy face, she never told me," Norman said. "I never had a clue. I mean, she told me last year when she was being bullied but not this year and I have no idea why."Norman said she pulled Sedwick out of Crystal Lake Middle School in February after a group of peers jumped her and started sending her hateful text messages, such as "You're ugly," "Why are you still alive?" and "Go kill yourself." The bullying got so bad at Crystal Lake that Norman said she had her daughter Baker Acted earlier this year after finding self-inflicted cuts on her arms and legs. "When she was being bullied at Crystal Lake Middle, she used to come home every day and tell me how she wasn't worth anything, that she was ugly, how she was stupid," Norman said. "And I said, ‘Baby what on earth would make you think that? You're the most beautiful person I know and the smartest person I know.' "According to the Polk County School District website, bullying is defined as the systematic or chronic infliction of physical or psychological hurt on a person. It can include teasing, intimidation, stalking, public humiliation and physical violence, among other things. School policy strictly prohibits all forms of bullying.Norman said when the bullying didn't stop at Crystal Lake Middle, despite multiple complaints and school interventions, she decided to home-school her daughter for the remainder of last school year. Last month, she moved Rebecca to Lawton Chiles Middle Academy, where she started seventh grade with what Norman said she hoped was a fresh start.Neuman said the school was just getting to know Rebecca. She remembered her smiling face as she walked to class. In those moments, the girl never seemed to give an outward sign of distress.After breaking the news of the girl's death to teachers and students, Neuman said everyone was left wondering why this happened. "Adults need to be openly communicating with our kids," she said. "We try to do that with them, so we know if they're hurting. But we saw no indication of that with her. We were just getting to know her."Howard said she was close to her sister and had no idea she was still being bullied. "She kept it all to herself," Howard said. The 12-year-old was helping her friend, Alecia Wilkins, 18, plan Wilkins' wedding, in which she was going to be a bridesmaid. She seemed happy, Wilkins said. But after deputies searched Rebecca's cell phone, her family learned the cyber-bullying hadn't stopped. Rebecca was being bombarded with messages on her cell phone from social media applications, such as Kik Messenger, Instagram and Ask.fm, an anonymous messaging site. "People just need to stop bullying, period," Howard said. "You never know whose life you're affecting."Norman said she hopes other parents can learn from her tragic situation so nobody has to go through what she's facing right now. And even though Rebecca seemed happier, the bullies continued to torment her. "Parents need to pay more attention. I mean, you think, ‘12 years old, how much trouble can they get into, she's my baby?' But parents need to be aware," she said. "I mean, even if your kids are good in school and they seem happy, there still could be something going on. And this is one of those cases where I would rather her be sitting here mad at me because I didn't give her any privacy, than to be gone because I'll never get her back. I'll never get her back."An autopsy was completed Tuesday, but results are pending toxicology results, the Sheriff's Office said. Norman said deputies found recent photos on Rebecca's phone of razor blades and fresh cut wounds. She said she doesn't know if she will ever understand how or why her daughter decided to take her own life, but she hopes bullies will learn that their words have consequences. "They need to realize that when they say these things, kids take them serious," she said. "I mean, especially coming kid to kid, you're on the same level and if somebody says, ‘Go kill yourself, you're not worth anything,' they're more apt to believe it."

[ Stephanie Allen can be reached at stephanie.allen@theledger.com or 863-802-7550. Matthew Pleasant can be reached at matthew.pleasant@theledger.com or 863-802-7590. ]

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